Orphan Black: Transgressive Border Crossing

Sorry for the delay, but I've another Polytech assignment looming!

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the episode itself, I just want to say that I've always had faith in the overarching story of Orphan Black, even when it became apparent that a few retcons and false leads had been thrown into the mix. But ultimately, I trust (perhaps foolishly given my experience with other television shows) that a master plan is at work and a satisfying resolution on its way.

Graeme Manson and John Fawcett have been given five seasons to tell their story, and though later seasons have never quite matched the impeccable quality of the first, so far they've maintained suspense, momentum and continuity with only a couple of minor fits and starts. The off-screen death of Marion Bowles, the reveal of who was pulling Helena's strings (a bunch of irrelevant rednecks?) and the introduction of Ethan Duncan were so anticlimactic that for a long time I didn't even realize their significance, but I think we're heading into endgame territory now and that once it's all over a rewatch will make everything clear.

Which is to say: I'm keeping the faith.  

Having said that, there's some iffiness in the general setup of this season; a couple of issues and circumstances that aren't immediately clear. Scott tells us that Dyad is no more, even though I was always under the impression they were the corporation funding the experiment and that Neolution was just a front for their activities. Now it seems it's the other way around?  

Does Dyad's shutdown mean the clones' monitors are still in play, or did they disappear along with the institution? Why is Cosima (apparently) in hiding while Alison and her family are still living in plain sight? Where are all these Neolution groupies coming from? What's their purpose exactly?

I get that this whole show is based on a shadowy conspiracy, but to take Dyad out of the equation and just have Scott say "we're running the experiment now" is the equivalent of a conceptual Bus Crash. They've disposed of a huge part of the story off-screen and between seasons. Some clarity on the situation and who is meant to be in charge would be great – and that's not even getting into the long-running mysteries that are nowhere near close to being resolved, such as Kira's apparent psychic/healing abilities.

But moving onto the good stuff, it turns out Sarah was right to heed MK's warning about the impending Neolutionists, and after escaping the cabin and leaving behind the dramatic sight of a burning sock monkey (okay, I just wanted the chance to type that out) they rendezvous with Cosima at a comic book store which is pointedly called Rabbit Hole Comics. Because at this point, we're totally down the rabbit hole.

Most of the episode is setting up the pieces for the rest of the season. Cosima is still ill, but hopeful that a cure from Kendall's genome is forthcoming. Art and Scott have been fully integrated into the clone club, which is especially great for Art considering he's finally getting some decent material (having been put on the backburner for the last two seasons).

Alison and Donnie are still giving Helena a place to sleep, and Donnie is further carrying his weight by accompanying Helena to the clinic for an ultrasound. And in the least surprising surprise you could have ever possibly foreseen, she's carrying twins. I'm not sure whether this warrants an eye-roll or an "aww", so instead let's stick with lauding Donnie's redemption arc. It's amazing to think we all hated him throughout season one and most of season two, and now he's gently holding Helena's hand while she stares at the first images of her babies.

Awwwww.

If I did a little digging I could probably build some sort of commentary on toxic masculinity – about how Donnie was desperate to be manly and important by spying on his wife, only to find his true calling as a supportive "beta" to the more dominate women that surround him - but there's also something to be said for Alison's obvious sadness in learning that Helena is carrying twins. 

Ever since Natasha Romanoff's similar grief about her sterility in Age of Ultron, the subject has been quite a contentious one in fandom: namely the question of how much a woman's worth is wrapped up in her desire/ability to have children. I'm on the fence about the whole thing: on the one hand a woman being sad she can't conceive is a perfectly valid feeling, on the other hand is the fact that I've never actually experienced it myself.

Infertility has always been a part of the show's underlying framework, mentioned as recently as last week when Beth bitterly declared "I can't breed", as well as the ongoing mystery that Sarah and Helena can get pregnant at all. It's obvious that Donnie rather enjoys taking Helena to the clinic, having never experienced that particular aspect of fatherhood, and perhaps it'll be a lead-in to Alison and Helena having more of a rapport this season.

It's hard to tell, but she's looking at the ultrasound photograph.

Elsewhere, it appears that Felix is getting this season's quirky subplot, in which he distances himself from the regulars and goes in search of his birth family. We'll just have to wait and see how this pans out, though I hope for his sake it doesn't end in heartache. Everyone is already expecting him to come to the conclusion that his true family is Sarah, Mrs S and Kira, but it would be nice if he found some sort of connection to his biological family. As he says, he's the odd one out now considering Sarah is actually related to their foster mother!

***

As well as all this, there are ongoing flashbacks to Beth and the final days of her life. Having found her surveillance equipment, Art and Sarah begin trawling through the footage, and several things stand out:

First of all, the pregnant girl visited Beth at her apartment, and though I expect her appearance on the tapes was mostly a narrative tool to get Sarah back to the Neolution Club, I have the feeling she'll turn up again in the present day.

We're also privy to a loaded conversation between Detective Duko and Beth that suggests he knows she knows he's involved with Neolution and is making thinly veiled threats to keep her in line. How else are we meant to interpret his line: "I want to keep everyone that I care about safe"?

Which means that he's probably the owner of the blood on Beth's hands the night she killed herself. Art watches as Beth gets ready, puts on a wig, loads her gun and leaves the house – only to return an unspecified amount of time later in a panic that quickly settles into despair. So what did Beth do that night? Who did she kill? Why did it drive her to suicide? Something tells me she did something to protect the other clones, though she also tells MK that she screwed things up. So perhaps the act of taking her own life was an attempt to shield them from the consequences of her actions.

This little mystery will no doubt sit at the heart of this season, and eventually shed more insight into why exactly Beth killed herself. It also serves as a contrast to Sarah. Where Sarah pushes for more answers, Beth urges MK to remain hidden and/or run away – something she's clearly taken to heart given her interaction with Sarah at the end of the episode.

But before we get to that, we see a distraught Beth wearing familiar shoes and carrying a handbag, presumably about to head to the train station. Before she goes, she and MK have a moment together, and it comes across as a lot warmer and more affectionate than we've previously seen between them, even as Beth says goodbye for the last time. I can't help but feel the dynamic is meant to have at least a passing resemblance to Sarah/Helena (if not simply because a "responsible" clone is bouncing off an "unhinged" clone – though I use those terms in a very broad sense) a vibe which is helped by the fact MK feels more like a real character than a plot instigator this time around. Her hair looked less like a wig, her accent sounded more assured, and Tatiana Maslany has found just the right amount of vulnerability to balance out the paranoia.

Which leads us to the final act, in which Sarah sort-of meets MK. This episode's Contrived Coincidence is that a man (who seriously looks like a punk version of Ragnar Lothbrok) turns up at Neolution and mistakes Sarah for MK, having arranged to meet her later that night. Though our otherwise confident con-artist has no idea how to impersonate a clone she's never met, Sarah manages to bluff him just long enough to see the footage he's brought, of a guy with a worm embedded in his cheek. When people try to cut it out of him... well, it's not pretty.

After a run-in with the two South Africans that Beth herself was spying on six months ago, Sarah realizes that SHE has a worm in her cheek. And somehow the show manages to make the Body Horror of a foreign object in one's mouth less terrifying than Sarah's utter bewilderment at what the device is actually for.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Only six months have passed since the start of the show?? How are all our characters not in complete meltdown mode after all that's happened in such a short amount of time? Well scratch that, I suppose the likes of Alison and Sarah are hanging by a thread in terms of their sanity.

So who got the best line this episode, Felix's "in art it's called a phallus, darling" or Helena's "a little tired and many farts"?

The way Scott looks at Cosima is... how to you even describe it? It's completely platonic, but is a look of such pure sadness and adoration that it kills me every time.

New season, new cell phones. It's tradition.

Hey, a return from Benjamin, surely the creepiest looking ally the clones have ever have. But what's up with Cal? Other than being on Game of Thrones? He was conspicuously missing from the end of last season too, but I kind of found myself lowkey shipping Sarah/Cal, so hopefully he'll re-emerge eventually, even if it's for a cliché nuclear family happy ending.

Speaking of ships, Cosima confides her fears to Mrs S. about the missing Delphine. I wasn't quite as fond of these two as an endgame ship (though I loved Delphine's character) but Cosima's fear for her safety is palpable and I recognize how much the couple means to the fandom at large. Which is to say, I'm still holding out hope the show finds a way to bring Delphine back somehow.

It turns out that Kendall has leukaemia and swears Scott to secrecy. That's a character pairing I didn't see coming, but it certainly puts a time limit on how useful Kendall is going to be.

What was the card Beth had? Have we seen that symbol before?

This woman had the fakest pregnant belly ever.